In the past, various auction methods, such as normal auction methods, reverse auction methods, network auction methods and a real-time auction method (see Korean Pat. Appl. Unexamined Publication No. 2000-23932), were disclosed.
In the conventional auction methods, participation in an auction is performed using characters, such as text, and buttons, so the participation in an auction is tedious and it is difficult for persons unskilled with computers to participate in auctions even though they desire to participate in the auctions. Additionally, even the new generation accustomed to text-oriented auctions using keyboards is bored with text-oriented auction methods, so they do not continuously participate in auctions and only temporarily access auction sites, thus failing to continuously use the auction sites.
In addition, if persons participate in auctions, they should frequently access auction sites and apprehend the status of the auctions during the processes of the auctions, and the processes of the auctions, in which only the status of bids is changed, can not attract the interests of participants, so the participants feel bored when accessing the auction sites.
Meanwhile, in conventional auction methods, persons, who desire to purchase particular products, should search for the products in person. Currently, on the Internet, a push technique in which advertisement is performed or tailor-made information is provided through e-mail, is widely employed. However, the conventional auction methods run counter to the current push technique on the Internet. In the case where persons desire to participate in auctions, they should participate in auction sites and search the contents of auctions one by one, which is tiresome. The conventional methods do not provide user-oriented services, so it is required to provide greater convenience to users.
For this reason, the conventional auction methods are disadvantageous in that the continuous access of members to auction sites cannot be promoted because the members do not access the auction sites in the case where there is no product to purchase.